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It is obvious that you are an experienced chef, but I never knew I was dealing with a TV Star! :notworthy:

I wondered why you did not clean that tender, in all honesty I thought it was an old guy thing. :) I have worked with many chefs of our generation, particularly in europe, who would not strip off the chain or silverskin.

imho that particular show had an agenda; that being the classical rules that trained chefs view as dogma are to be ignored-even if they make sense!!! I have nothing against innovation for its own sake, but sometimes there is a good reason no one has tried a particular combination before. You should take it as a compliment that they chose you as a target because they viewed you as a chef who knew how to prepare classical food correctly.

HEART ATTACK TWO DAYS BEFORE! Actually, being a real culinarian from a time when chefs were chefs I would expect no less-GET THE FOOD OUT!!!

Hax the Cook CLEAVERS RULE!!! :D
 
Awesome, congrats. That's some good press too. Do you guys have a PR person? Or are food writers in NY actually on top of it ? In my po-dunk town you can tell the only food group that has a PR person because they are in the paper every week and get a 2 sentence paragraph in BA or F&W.
My family & I are heading up to visit the wife's side of the family in CT this summer. Will take the train in and check it out.
 
We just made a pr transition, it's a must in nyc. Definitely hit me up when you're in town!
 
WildBoar said:
Holy crap -- the Son episode is on right now! (and repeats at 2:00 am)
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Yep on now pacific time then again at 11pm. Lol was just thinking about him. My 9 year old son broke my toe sideways today when he was horse playing. Wife was at work I was watching the kids. So I relocated and reset it myself and then taped it to the toe next to it. For some reason this reminded me of son "sachem"
 
gonna have to watch that one again. Been a while, may have to go get some red wine (only alcohol I can drink) and watch it.
 
Crothcipt said:
sachem, I remember watching that episode and was yelling at the judges on how stupid the one of them was on how your meat was cooked. I hope you had found your knives, it would really suck if you ended up losing money doing the show. It may also be that you just had a heart attack that they got rid of you so soon.

Any way good luck on the show. hope you did well, and I hope you had a better time than sachem did.
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Watched the episode you were on last night, I can't believe you were chopped when you were.
 
Crothcipt said:
sachem, I remember watching that episode and was yelling at the judges on how stupid the one of them was on how your meat was cooked. I hope you had found your knives, it would really suck if you ended up losing money doing the show. It may also be that you just had a heart attack that they got rid of you so soon.

Any way good luck on the show. hope you did well, and I hope you had a better time than sachem did.
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Watched the episode you were on last night, I can't believe you were chopped when you were. I was mistaken what episode you were on though.
 
Congrats! It made me want to go to NY!
 
Yeah, we ID'd him each time he came. The night before the review came out Pete Wells called to ask a bunch of questions, almost as if he forgot his dining experience and mentioned "I'm very behind schedule"

I think the words on the review are somewhat fair. I intentionally cook the chicken breast to a beautiful blonde and have made the comment to new cooks, "Do no hammer this breast, the tarragon brine will not shine through and you will overpower the ballontine, cook it to a blonde, not everything roasted has to be as dark as you can get it without burning it, that's just a trend..." The most common comment we get regarding the review is "When I read it I thought it was a two or three star review and was really surprised to only see one star..."

What do you think?

Either way, I've been trying to up people's moral by preaching, "It's time to put your egos aside and start making money, this is a business." Our reservations have been climbing. In the end though, I thought it would be a battle between two and three stars, no one expected to get one. Come in and judge for yourself :)
Johnny.B.Good said:
Exciting.

Do you think the review is fair?

Did you spot the reviewer when he visited? Are you tipped off that one is coming?

I hope you see a rush of new business in the weeks and months to come.
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Interesting (I am not in the business, so have no idea how critics and restaurants operate).

Does someone in the front of the house make it his/her business to know the face of every "important" critic in the city? I assume you then go out of your way to make it a great experience, but do you tip your hand that you know who he is? Does he sit and make notes as the evening progresses? Not sure I could ever describe a meal I have had in a restaurant in such detail if I didn't keep notes the entire time.

I thought it was overwhelmingly positive and was surprised to see only one star at the end (four stars is the max?), however I don't take the Times and don't know how the scale works (I guess one star is pretty good considering his comments).

I would happily visit, but you're a bit out of my neighborhood I'm afraid. Everything looks and sounds great and I wish you continued success.
 
Ouch 1 star. From the write up you would think it would be higher. Did he explain why he gave what he did, other than the write up?

Gratz on the review, hope it gets your phone ringing off the hook.
 
AnxiousCowboy said:
Yeah, we ID'd him each time he came. The night before the review came out Pete Wells called to ask a bunch of questions, almost as if he forgot his dining experience and mentioned "I'm very behind schedule"

I think the words on the review are somewhat fair. I intentionally cook the chicken breast to a beautiful blonde and have made the comment to new cooks, "Do no hammer this breast, the tarragon brine will not shine through and you will overpower the ballontine, cook it to a blonde, not everything roasted has to be as dark as you can get it without burning it, that's just a trend..." The most common comment we get regarding the review is "When I read it I thought it was a two or three star review and was really surprised to only see one star..."

What do you think?

Either way, I've been trying to up people's moral by preaching, "It's time to put your egos aside and start making money, this is a business." Our reservations have been climbing. In the end though, I thought it would be a battle between two and three stars, no one expected to get one. Come in and judge for yourself :)
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The way I read it I thought it was a 2 or 3 star review. The scale is 0-4 stars. If you get 0 stars you can also get "poor, fair, or satisfactory" attached. One star is "good" two stars is "very good" three stars is "excellent" and four stars "extraordinary." His major complaint seemed to be one element of each dish wasn't supposed to be there, I don't read that as a "good" restaurant. Two seemed more likely, but hey, you can't complain.
 
Andrew H said:
The way I read it I thought it was a 2 or 3 star review. The scale is 0-4 stars. If you get 0 stars you can also get "poor, fair, or satisfactory" attached. One star is "good" two stars is "very good" three stars is "excellent" and four stars "extraordinary." His major complaint seemed to be one element of each dish wasn't supposed to be there, I don't read that as a "good" restaurant. Two seemed more likely, but hey, you can't complain.
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If this is the scale, then I agree with you that the review read like he was describing a two or three star establishment. Hopefully people read the reviews and don't just count stars. Should be good for business I imagine.
 
Johnny.B.Good said:
Interesting (I am not in the business, so have no idea how critics and restaurants operate). Does someone in the front of the house make it his/her business to know the face of every "important" critic in the city? I assume you then go out of your way to make it a great experience, but do you tip your hand that you know who he is? Does he sit and make notes as the evening progresses? Not sure I could ever describe a meal I have had in a restaurant in such detail if I didn't keep notes the entire time.
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He didnt take notes or anything. We treated him the same way we treat any VIP in that we seat him at the nicer tables on the floor. Other than that there is no preferential treatment. Other than the write up there is no explanation for the rating. Like I said before it's kind of a downer since we did not expect to get one star, but the review was indeed positive and the books are filling up; we are getting a lot of positive feedback from the clientele. I'd rather make everyone happy while doing 60% more business than dwell on one person's opinion on nettle raviolis. Most people's reaction to their meal while juxtaposing the review is surprise because they expected something lesser since we only got one star. The way I look at it, that element of surprise is even more motivation for that client to spread the word and their opinion.
 
PS:
I thought my chopped episode was going to air in september, but I got this email last night:
Tuesday, June 12th, 2012 @ 10PM ET -- subject to change
 
Sweet -- only one month away! Looking forward to watching it.

Glad to hear business is up. Word-of-mouth will take over at this point, and the one star will be a distant memory.
 
Thanks for all the inside information on the restaurant business and how critics operate.

I will keep my eyes out for your episode of Chopped!
 
Each critic operates differently, same with how each paper, mag., web., ect. Some will talk to the owners, management. But those are usually paid for by the restaurant. Others will do a write up and explain why they gave what they did, and how to raise it for next time (very few). I think what you got was best. It keeps both parties honest, and helps in rep.

Good luck in a very hard area. I, if I didn't state so earlier, would love to try out your place.
 
AnxiousCowboy said:
... We treated him the same way we treat any VIP in that we seat him at the nicer tables on the floor. Other than that there is no preferential treatment...
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Good for you for keeping it honest. There's not much I can stand less than a restaurant that gushes over a reviewer to the neglect of the other patrons, and/or creating false pretenses. Too many times I've read a glowing review of a restaurant, whether it's here in the valley or on the front range, and been hugely disapointed. And I've been in a local joint a few years ago for a friend's b'day dinner party the night a reviewer f/ a paper was in - the reviewer had the attention on the whole place swarming over her, and we got bad service and lousy, cold food. She gave the joint a glowing review in the paper the next day - my experience couldn't have been more opposite. I was so pissed.

Looking forward to the Chopped episdoe! mpp
 
One more thought - reviews are just one person's opinion, and they are somewhat refelctive of the establishment they are writing for. Never-the-less, they can be refelctive of what a general consensus. Sometimes critics can be way off base; sometimes they can be far more astute that the average person coming in off the street. As I read it, I can see why he gave 1 star. Good to hear that it's generating biz. Whether or not you agree with the criticism, look at what he had to say and take from it that which is constructive, and use it to move yourself, the food and the restautant forward.
 
My episode of Chopped is airing this Tuesday, June 12th, let me know what you think, I don't have a TV atm!
 
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